Scene from a funeral in Al-Najaf (file photo) (epa)
March 8, 2006 -- The bodies of 23 executed men and boys were found in different parts of Baghdad today.

A U.S. military patrol says it found 18 of the bodies in an abandoned minibus. Reports say all the victims were blindfolded with their hands bound, and had been strangled or shot.

Iraqi police found the bodies of another four men in a field in eastern Baghdad. The corpse of another man elsewhere in eastern Baghdad.

The motive for the killings is not clear.

In other developments, reports say a convoy of cars of Iraq's interior minister was targeted by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. One person was killed. Interior Minister Bayan Jabor was not in the convoy at the time.